Australia's only SARS case 'false alarm'

April 9 2003

Australia's only likely case of SARS had turned out to be a false alarm, federal health authorities said today. The revelation came as a doctor accused China's health minister of covering up the number of people in Beijing infected by the virus.

The number of suspected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Australia has now been revised down from one to none after tests showed the man had been suffering from influenza.

The man, a British tourist who had been a temporary resident in NSW, has recovered and returned home.

Chief commonwealth medical officer Richard Smallwood said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had been informed.

He said analysis of samples taken from the man while he was in Australia showed he had the flu.

"The arrival today of new laboratory information about this case goes to show the difficulties faced in determining SARS cases," Prof Smallwood said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a Chinese doctor has taken the extraordinary step of accusing China's health minister of covering up the number of people in Beijing infected by the virus - which has killed more than 100 people worldwide.

The flu-like disease has infected more than 2,800 people in about 20 countries with nearly half the cases, at least 1,279, in China, followed by Hong Kong with 928.

Although the epidemic is small, it concerns doctors because the virus is new and has a death rate of nearly four percent.

Dr Jiang Yanyong, 71, said in a letter sent to journalists that six people had died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and 60 had been infected at Beijing's military-run 309 Hospital by last Thursday.

Health Minister Zhang Wenkang told a news conference on that day that Beijing had only 12 cases, three of whom had died.

Although Chinese officials said the epidemic was under control, Chinese doctors contacted by Reuters and other news organisations yesterday spoke of packed wards and many more deaths than reported by Beijing.

Jiang said he and many other doctors and nurses had been angry when they heard Zhang's statement.

"I think he wants very much to accomplish big things so he must tell lies," Jiang, a Communist Party member for more than 50 years, said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters today.

Jiang's move, highly unusual for a Party member, could lay him open to being purged or even jailed for criticising leaders publicly.

Asked to comment on Jiang's allegation, Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said military hospitals were not under Zhang's jurisdiction.

"In China, military hospitals are independent. Zhang Wenkang has no control over military hospitals," Deng told Reuters.

At a news conference today, Beijing Vice Mayor Zhang Mao sidestepped questions on the doctor's accusations, saying the central and local governments would report figures on a regular basis, but declined to elaborate or give figures.

He said the Health Ministry was reporting daily to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"These cases of SARS have not affected the life and work of people in Beijing. Therefore it is safe to travel and work in Beijing," he said.

China has reported 1,279 SARS infections and 53 deaths nationwide, most of them in southern Guangdong province where the virus first appeared in November.

On Monday, the WHO's Dr David Heymann told a US Senate committee that the epidemic could have been controlled if Chinese authorities had asked for help in November.

WHO is now praising China for its cooperation and has a team in Guangdong investigating the outbreak. It will report to the Chinese government on Wednesday.

The chief suspect behind SARS is a newly identified coronavirus, whose closest relative is the common cold virus.

More than 40 people in Hong Kong's Ngau Tau Kok district in Kowloon and Tuen Mun in the New Territories had caught the disease in the past 10 days, said a health department spokesman and a district lawmaker, raising fears it is far from contained.

Two more deaths and 45 new infections were reported yesterday in Hong Kong, where the disease has already killed 25.

Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin told a radio program cockroaches might have carried infected waste from sewage pipes into apartments in a huge housing complex, Amoy Gardens, which has had a quarter of the city's infections.

But other medical experts said cockroaches were an unlikely source of transmission.

Canada is one of the countries hardest hit by SARS, with some 226 people infected and 10 reported deaths. The virus was carried to Canada by air passengers from Asia.

Thousands of Canadians, many of them health workers, have been quarantined in their homes. Others wear masks to work for fear they have been exposed to the virus and might be infectious.

Chinese-Canadians said they were being treated like monsters.

Ming Tat Cheung, president of Toronto's Chinese Cultural Centre, said shoppers were staying away from normally bustling Chinatown, and sales were down by up to 70 per cent.

The virus is deepening the malaise in the key tourism industry, already hurt by the war in Iraq and the Bali bombings last year. Hotels and regional airlines go empty as travellers avoid Asia.

Australia's main carrier, Qantas Airways, announced an additional 1,000 job cuts, or three per cent of its work force. Vietnam's only listed hotel, Saigon Hotel said occupancy rates had dropped to 50 per cent.

Australia is monitoring six people for SARS, the latest a two-year-old girl from Vietnam. The girl was taken to a Sydney hospital yesterday after reportedly picking up an infection while visiting Guangdong.

Three Canadian children suspected of having SARS have been released from a Melbourne hospital after getting the all clear. Indonesia said today nine people were under observation for SARS, although none had been classified as suspected SARS cases.

Singapore reopened some classes for the first time since shutting down the school system three weeks ago.

But as 16- and 18-year-olds filed into junior college, news of five more SARS infections and a ninth death deepened public anxiety.

The Roman Catholic Church in Singapore, a tiny city state which has the world's fourth-highest number of SARS cases at 118, also announced new precautions.

It said it had suspended confessions due to the spread of the virus and priests would instead forgive all churchgoers en masse for their sins.